Witch Spellcasting

Using your familiar as a conduit, your patron provides you the power to cast spells. You are a spellcaster, and you can cast spells of your patron’s tradition using the Cast a Spell activity. As a witch, when you cast spells, your incantations might rhyme, your gestures might be as simple as an ominous pointing finger or a complex folk sign, and your familiar might even echo your words or movements slightly as your patron’s magic surges.

At 1st level, you can prepare up to two 1st-rank spells and five cantrips each morning from the spells your familiar knows. Prepared spells remain available to you until you cast them or until you prepare your spells again. The number of spells you can prepare each day is called your spell slots. As you increase in level as a witch, the number of spells you can prepare each day increases, as does the highest rank of spell you can cast, as shown in the Witch Spells per Day table.

Some of your spells require you to attempt a spell attack to see how effective they are, or have your enemies roll against your spell DC (typically by attempting a saving throw). Since your key attribute is Intelligence, your spell attack modifier and spell DC use your Intelligence modifier.

Heightening Spells

When you get spell slots of 2nd-rank and higher, you can fill those slots with stronger versions of lower-rank spells. This increases the spell’s rank, heightening it to match the spell slot. Many spells have specific improvements when they are heightened to certain ranks.

Cantrips

Some of your spells are cantrips. A cantrip is a special type of spell that doesn’t use spell slots. You can cast a cantrip at will, any number of times per day. A cantrip is always automatically heightened to half your level rounded up—this is usually equal to the highest rank of witch spell slot you have. For example, as a 1st-level witch, your cantrips are 1st-rank spells, and as a 5th-level witch, your cantrips are 3rd-rank spells.